Lomographic Reflections - Lomo LC-A+ & La Sardina Photos by @shmelien

Dreamy and curious, these photos taken by Belgian film enthusiast Elien Decommer (@shmelien) conjure the feeling of laying on the grass, watching the clouds pass by and looking at the world around you from a new perspective.

A Lomographer through and through, her images reflect the first in Lomography's 10 Golden Rules, that of taking your camera wherever you go. We asked her about her love for photography, her fascination with Lomography cameras and her travels.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your experience shooting with film?

I studied translation, Russian being one of my languages. So I got to spend some time in Saint-Petersburg, where I discovered the Fisheye One at a flea market. I remember the camera looking very flashy - all fluorescent orange.

It got my attention. I bought my own Fisheye One and that's how I enrolled in Lomography, and in photography in general.

I like both digital and analogue photography. Digital because of the details, the lines in the picture, the symmetry, and the stand-still in time that a picture represents.

Analogue, because of the bigger stand-still in time (remembering moments after finally getting a roll developed that's been in my camera for months), the warm atmosphere analogue photography represents and because of the many experiments you can do with it.

When people say that analogue photography is passé, I usually answer that they can't compare both. Digital and analogue photography are different, the goals are also different. With digital photography, you want the best quality, the most details, the best-edited version.

Analogue photography represents a certain atmosphere, a feeling, a picture that is as least edited as possible; a warm kind of photography that digital can never be. I guess you can compare it a little to streaming your music or listening to music on LP records. The feeling is not the same and you don't want it to be the same.

You shoot with a lot of Lomography cameras, what are the features you like the most about them?

I like the multiple exposure option and the fact that you can rewind. For now, the Lomo LC-A is my favorite, because you can be a bit more precise with it than with a La Sardina for example.

But I'm still growing in photography and learning, and I'm looking forward to using the Petzval lens (although the new LomoApparat looks very fun as well.)

It also seems like you travel a lot with film cameras. How does it change the way you approach places? And which cameras and film stocks do you usually take?

I used to take my La Sardina with me, but that one had to make way for my LC-A+. I often go to Spain, because that is where my partner is from.

And then it sometimes happens that I shoot the same places on the same roll, but at a different moment in time. And it's always nice to discover how those pictures turned out.

I also prefer shooting in cities and outdoors. Berlin for example is a great place to take analogue pictures, because the contrast of modern and old that defines the city comes out great in analogue pictures.

Lately, I've been shooting with the Dubblefilm rolls for the soft colors and the LomoChrome Purple for the popping blue, pink and purple, but the Lomography X-Pro Slide 200 has been one of my all-time favorites.

Do you have a favorite among your photos?

This is a picture I took in the summer of 2014, in the Belgian city of Mechelen. It's a double exposure taken with my La Sardina on a regular roll (ISO 400.)

I was just very lucky with the light, the moment, and how the composition of this double exposure turned out. I hope to be this lucky again one day.

Thank you to Elien for sharing her photos and stories with the community! To check out more of her work, visit her LomoHome and Instagram page.

written by sylvann on 2022-12-11 #culture #people #places #belgium #multiple-exposure #lomo-lc-a #lomography-x-pro-slide-200 #la-sardina #shmelien